Posed with a simple question, Barrington Town Council member Kate Weymouth had a direct answer.

The question: If you could do it all again, would you still serve on the town council?

Her answer: "Yes, in a heartbeat."

Ms. Weymouth was first elected to the council in 2004 and has been re-elected a total of four times.

"To my knowledge, I may be the longest serving town council member ever, certainly for the past 25 years," she wrote in a recent email.

Ms. Weymouth has used her time on the council to address many issues, with a focus on the environment.

"While proud of my accomplishments over the years, (hiring the town’s first full time town planner; establishing the Barrington Community Garden; introducing ordinances to allow raising chickens and bees; establishing a tree nursery, to name a few), my heart and soul have consistently been drawn to the issue of single-use plastic reduction," she wrote, adding that she plans to continue to speak out on the issue and testify at the RI Statehouse if necessary.

She said Rhode Island has moved closer to passing a statewide plastic bag ban, although the effort took a step backward during the coronavirus crisis.

"… the pandemic hit and the plastics industry got a lead on mistaken fears that reusable bags were transmitters of the virus, and that plastic bags were safer…a health safety ‘fact’ for which there is no scientific basis," she wrote. "It is crushing to those of us who have come so far, and so close to achieving what should have been done years before, but we will carry on once we establish a workable new normal to advocate for the health of the planet. So I don’t intend to disappear from ‘politics’, only change direction and focus."

Ms. Weymouth said her work on the town council has been the most fulfilling experience of her life, aside from raising her two sons.

"Some might think being a town council member would be boring, especially if they tune into a normal meeting with few to no controversial issues, but in fact, solving problems, from the seemingly mundane like deciding on which word should be included or excluded from a proposed resolution, to the most difficult like the decision to privatize our trash collection, is truly how the sausage gets made and I found it all fascinating," she wrote. "Every process for a decision is an education, and looking back, I know my personal growth would have felt stunted had I not run for office. It is a civics lesson like no other. Every citizen should be required to serve in public office, so that they can appreciate how our government is supposed to work and why it is essential to this democracy."

Ms. Weymouth said politics in general have become nastier over time, and that includes Barrington.

"For the past two years it has become increasingly less satisfying to deal with the overall negativity being in a position of having to ultimately make the decisions no one else wants or is willing to make," she wrote. "Negative, oftentimes erroneous, misquoted or misrepresented press and editorials haven't helped.

"I feel I’m leaving the council in good hands with solid democratic candidates, but especially with Mike Carroll as president, a position I never wished to have and am ever grateful that he was willing to take on."

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